publishing archival photographs · publishing archival photographs concerns, pittfalls and their...

Publishing Archival

Photographs Concerns, Pittfalls and their technical

implications

October 2015 – Brussels, JPEG

Publishing Archival Photographs: concerns, pittfalls and their technical implications Publishing Archival Photographs: concerns, pittfalls and their technical implications

“Publishing Archival Photographs: concerns, pittfalls and their technical implications”

EuropeanaPhotography

1 February 2012 – 31 January 2015 Over 450,000 early photographs selection, digitization, enrichment, ingestion to Europeana

Boris III of Bulgaria and Giovanna of Italy – the celebration of the royal wedding in Sofia. © NALIS (Bulgaria)

19 partners - 13 EU countries, 3 associate partners Coordinator: KU Leuven Technical Coordinator: Promoter srl

Associate partners: Cyprus University of Technology SC Bali Kiev The Israeli Museum in Jerusalem

Alfieri | Bridgewater – Somerset (England),

undated

Gelatin dry plate

Miss Edna Maude, a 17 year old dancer on

holiday, offering the blacksmith a drink.

Klementyna

Zubrzycka-

Bączkowska |

Raszówki

(Poland), ca.

1910

Silver gelatin

print

Picnic in the

forest: a favorite

pastime of the

Polish gentry at

the break of the

20th century.

Franciszka

Zubrzycka is

enjoying a day

out with her

daughters and

the local notary.

Courtesy of GenCat Cultura

Portrait of the actress

Míriam, dressed with

Manila shawl and

Cordovan hat.

Author: Antonio

Esplugas

Collection: Antonio

Esplugas

Owner: National

Archive of Catalonia

(ANC).

Chinese men smoking in Opium room.

© United Archives (Germany)

What will we discuss?

• Experience of the project EuropeanaPhotography

• Identified Problem areas

– Analog to Digital

– Privacy and Ethics

– IPR

1. 451,178 digitized images accessible through Europeana currently

2. Digitization and metadata best practices

3. Multilingual vocabulary in 16 languages

4. EP-MINT mapping tool

5. IPR Guidebook

6. ‘All Our Yesterdays’ exhibitions

7. PHOTOCONSORTIUM established

OUTCOMES OF THE PROJECT

Techniques

• Daguerreotype

• Tintype – Ambrotype

• Wet collodion

• Albumen print

• Gelatin dry plate

• Silver gelatin print

• Autochrome

• Nitrate film

Unknown woman. © M. K. Čiurlionis National Art Museum (Lithuania)

Photos contributed by visitors

Davis Cup tennis Spain vs Germany – Josep Maria Sagarra i Plana, 26/04/1936 – Arxiu Nacional de

Catalunya via Generalitat de Catalunya

CC BY-NC-ND

Red Cross station at the station of Aubervilliers – Maurice-Louis Branger/Louis Viollet, 1914 – Parisienne de

Photographie

Free access , no re-use

Barges on the river Spree – author unknown, 1930s – United Archives

Free access, no re-use

Absis of the Girona Cathedral – author unknown, 1880 – Ajuntament de Girona

Public Domain

Data?

DIGITISATION

1. Capture according to EP specifications

2. Device conformance testing and calibration, based on established benchmarks and specifications

3. Digital conversion

4. Image processing: correction/editing/processing to digital files

5. File naming

6. File formats and compression for archiving and preservation

DIGITIZATION AND METADATA BEST PRACTICES

GUIDELINES > DIGITIZATION

GUIDELINES > PRE-INGESTION QUALITY CHECK

Standards and guidelines are a first guarantee for image quality

After digitizing, images are tested on correct file naming

size of images

acceptable borders and margins

images completeness

correct graphic files

image characteristics (resolution, bit-depth, colour space, etc.)

GUIDELINES > POST-INGESTION QUALITY CHECK

Metadata Task Force tests content uploaded on MINT for the following criteria

Quality of the Metadata Findability in multiple languages Quality of the Digitization Quality and Resolution of the Preview

Archival preparation of originals

• Analysis

• Physical and intellectual organization

Preservation preparation of originals

• Evaluation of physical condition

• Cleaning

• Restoration

The digital object

Image, Negative, Photo, Document,

… Representation

Retouching, Restoring what?

Edmond Couchot, Image puissance Image 1984

Vincenzo Balocchi | Firenze (Italy), 1938

Silver gelatin print

Photographer at work at the Piazza della Signoria.

From Image to Photo

Photographic experience

Captured light

Negative

/ CCD

Positive

Print copy

Digital master

Digital copy

Reprint

Photographic Object

information

information

Incremental information

enhanced

Digital Reframing

• Detachment from original bearer

• Decontextualisation Recontextualisation

• Remediation

• The photo as information vs. its materiality

Karl Heinrich Lämmel | Koblenz (Germany), 1930s

With the Köln Düsseldorfer white fleet on the river

Rhine near Koblenz.

John Topham | Swanscombe (United Kingdom), 1938 - Gelatin dry plate - Lovers Lane, Swanscombe.

Rights labels

• Europeana’s Rights Labels are inspired by Creative Commons Licenses

– Public Domain Mark

– Creative Commons CC-BY licenses

The IPR Guidebook sheds light on the Europeana IPR model, the Data Exchange Agreement, and lists online supporting tools for companies and institutions:

Online guidebook: http://europeana-photography.iprguide.org

IPR blog: http://ep-blog.iprguide.org

Tools: IPR GUIDEBOOK

Courtesy of MHF

IPR overview

Label #in Europeana

Rights Reserved – Free Access 127682

Rights Reserved – Paid Access 117993

Public Domain Marked 90490

CC-BY-NC-ND 85067

Unknown 16107

CC-BY-NC 1221

TOTAL 438560

IPR

• Issues

– Each internet use involves a copy

– Is the digital master a new work or a technical copy?

– Public domain is moving target

– Need for OOC-NC label

– Are labels rights claims? By whom?

– No real fair use, unclear educational context

– Orphan Works directive insufficient

Privacy and ethics

• Issues

– Not everything in an archival collection can be published

– The meaning changes over time, also the sensitivities

– Privacy of people depicted

– Performative effects of publishing

Technical implications

• Analog to Digital

– Need for multispectral information, e.g. RGB + 2 IR + 1 UV

– Definition of Master object

• IPR

– More refined rights metadata included in popular image standards

• Ethics

– Better protection of image integrity by digital fingerprinting

Paul van Hinderburg enters Koblenz 1930

www.photoconsortium.net

info@photoconsortium.net

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